The boss arena emerged from the floating chaos of Floor 7 as a massive platform easily half a kilometer across, hung in the center of a cleared space where no other islands drifted.
Stone columns rose from its surface at regular intervals, carved with symbols that glowed faintly in the eternal twilight. And at its center, curled around a pillar of crystallized light, something enormous slept.
"Oh," Ravenna breathed. "That's... that's big."
Big was an understatement. The creature wrapped around the central pillar was serpentine but massive, its body easily thirty meters long and thick as a house. Wings of membrane and bone lay folded against its flanks while scales the color of storm clouds covered every visible inch of it. And its head, resting atop coils of its own body, was crowned with horns that sparked with lightning even in sleep.
[Floor 7 Boss: Sky Serpent]
[Classification: Apex predator]
[Threat level: Extreme]
[Note: Aerial combatant, lightning affinity]
[Recommended party size: 8-12 climbers]
"We're three people," Astrid said flatly while reading the same notification. "It wants eight to twelve."
"Recommendations are for average climbers." He studied the serpent while comparing it to his memories. In the original timeline he had fought this creature with a party of seven, and they had won barely with two dead and three maimed. "We're not average."
Other climbers were already on the platform, he realized. Two groups, one of six and one of four, had claimed positions on opposite sides of the arena, and neither looked eager to wake the serpent.
And there, standing with the larger group, was a familiar face with golden hair, easy smile, and empty eyes.
Adrian Cross.
"He's here." Astrid's voice dropped to a growl. "The traitor."
"Not yet a traitor, not publicly." He kept his own voice level. "For now he's just another climber trying to clear the floor."
"Can't we just—"
"No. I told you, I need proof, and right now we need to focus on the serpent."
The larger group was approaching them with Adrian at its head wearing that helpful, humble expression that made him want to tear off the man's face.
"Dante! I was hoping we'd meet again." Adrian's smile was warm and genuine-seeming. "I see your party has stayed intact, impressive given the floor's challenges."
"We managed."
"More than managed, from what I've heard, the Sky Hunter pack, the stranded climbers, all of it." He gestured toward the sleeping serpent. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to coordinate? Ten climbers have better odds than six or three or four working separately."
Every instinct screamed at him to refuse, to keep distance from the man who would become his greatest enemy. But refusing without reason would draw suspicion, and right now Adrian was just a fellow climber offering sensible advice.
"Fine, but I call the shots during the fight."
Adrian's eyebrows rose. "You?"
"I've fought aerial bosses before and I know how they move, how they attack. You want coordination? Then someone has to lead."
For a moment something flickered behind Adrian's empty eyes, assessment and calculation. Then the smile returned.
"Of course, you clearly have the experience." He turned to his group. "Dante Graves is taking point on this fight, follow his directions."
The other climbers looked uncertain but didn't argue because Adrian's group had been following him since Floor 1 and his words carried weight.
The smaller group, the four-person team, drifted closer. Their leader, a scarred man with a bow, nodded at him.
"We're in, what's the plan?"
He looked at the serpent, at the arena, at the motley collection of climbers who were putting their lives in his hands.
'Ten of us, should be enough if nobody panics.'
"Spread out in pairs, the serpent will target whoever's closest when it wakes so we rotate aggro. Ranged attackers focus on the wings, melee on the body, and nobody goes for the head until I say so."
"Why not the head?"
"Because the head is where the lightning comes from, and anyone who gets close dies unless the wings are already damaged." He drew his Champion's Blade while feeling the weapon hum with anticipation. "Astrid, you're with me on initial engagement. Ravenna, stay in the midline and hit it with Hellfire when there's an opening. Adrian, keep your people mobile and watch for pattern changes."
"Pattern changes?"
"You'll know when you see them."
He stepped toward the center of the arena, toward the sleeping guardian of this floor.
"Time to wake it up."
---
The Sky Serpent did not appreciate being disturbed.
It rose from the pillar with a scream that echoed across the floating arena, wings unfurling to block out what passed for sky on Floor 7. Lightning crackled along its scales, building into an aura that made his hair stand on end and his teeth ache.
"SCATTER!"
The first lightning bolt struck the ground where they had been standing, leaving a crater of fused stone. Climbers dove in every direction with the careful formation he had planned dissolving into chaos.
Astrid was already moving with her transformation bleeding red across her features as she charged the serpent with a roar of her own. She couldn't reach its body, but she could draw its attention, and that was exactly what they needed.
The serpent's head whipped toward her with jaws opening to unleash another blast of lightning.
He intercepted.
Shadow Step carried him into the space between Astrid and certain death, his sword coming up in an arc that deflected the lightning bolt into the arena floor rather than through his teammate's skull. The energy that hit him instead burned through his nerves, but he stayed on his feet through sheer willpower.
"WINGS!" he shouted. "Focus on the wings!"
Arrows flew from the archer's bow with each one trailing flame or ice or some other enhancement. They stuck in the serpent's wing membrane, pinning and tearing, slowing the massive beats that kept the creature airborne.
Ravenna's Hellfire joined the assault with black-edged flames eating through scales and membrane with equal hunger. The serpent screamed again, this time in pain rather than rage, and its flight pattern stuttered.
"It's dropping!" someone shouted. "Get ready!"
The serpent crashed to the arena floor with its damaged wings unable to maintain altitude. The impact shook the entire platform and sent climbers stumbling, but he had been expecting it.
"NOW! ALL MELEE, GO!"
He was first among them with Champion's Blade singing as it carved through scales that would have stopped any normal weapon. Astrid was right beside him with her transformed fists punching holes in the serpent's hide with every strike. Two of Adrian's people joined them with swords and axes adding to the damage.
The serpent thrashed with its body whipping back and forth in an attempt to throw them off. One of Adrian's climbers caught the tail, flew across the arena, and didn't get back up. Another was lucky, rolling under the sweep to come up still fighting.
"HEAD!" he shouted. "Ravenna, hit it now!"
Her Hellfire struck the serpent's crowned skull in a concentrated beam with black flames boring through the scales to reach whatever lay beneath. The creature's screaming intensified while its lightning aura flickered and died as its concentration broke.
He saw his opening.
He ran up the serpent's body using coils as stepping stones, and reached its neck just as it tried to rear back and bite. His blade found the gap between two major scales and sank deep, deep enough that he could feel the pulse of the creature's massive heart through the handle.
One twist, one push, and the heart stopped.
The Sky Serpent collapsed with its massive body going limp all at once, and he rode the falling head to the arena floor with his sword still buried in its neck.
[Sky Serpent slain]
[Floor 7 complete]
[System points: +3000]
[Bonus: Killing blow - additional rewards]
[Administrator attention: Level 9]
---
The aftermath was chaos with healing potions distributed and wounds dressed. The climber who had caught the tail was alive, amazingly, though unconscious and badly broken. The rest bore scratches and burns but nothing life-threatening.
"That was..." Adrian approached him while the others recovered, his expression carrying something that might have been genuine respect. "That was impressive. The way you directed the fight, the way you knew exactly when to push, it was like you'd done it before."
"Lucky guesses."
"No." Adrian's eyes met his, and for a moment the emptiness showed through the mask. "Not luck. I've watched you since Floor 1, Dante. Watched you anticipate things that should be unpredictable. Watched you find hidden paths and hidden treasures. You know something the rest of us don't."
"Everyone has their secrets."
"Indeed they do." His smile returned, pleasant and hollow. "I wonder what yours are."
He walked away before he could respond, rejoining his group with that easy charm that made everyone trust him.
Ravenna appeared at his side with her face tight with concern.
"He knows something's different about you."
"Everyone knows something's different, I stopped being able to hide it around Floor 5."
"He's not like everyone else." She glanced toward Adrian, watching him laugh with his people. "I can sense emotions, remember? Most people feel things, happiness and anger and fear, something. He doesn't feel anything at all. There's just emptiness, like there's a person-shaped hole where feelings should be."
Astrid joined them while wiping serpent blood from her fists. "So the traitor is hollow inside, figures."
"Not hollow." He watched Adrian too, remembering the man who had smiled while twelve people died. "Just broken in a way that makes him dangerous. He can pretend to feel anything, but none of it is real."
"What do we do about him?"
"For now? Nothing. We watch, we wait, and we make sure we're strong enough to stop him when the time comes."
The exit gate opened at the arena's far edge with light spilling from it like a promise of safety.
"Floor 8 next," he said. "The Sunken City, and someone I never wanted to see again."
Ravenna's hand found his and squeezed once.
"You won't be alone."
He squeezed back, and together they walked toward the gate, toward the next floor and the next challenge and the ghost of a relationship that had broken him the first time around.